Why Was There No Beef?

Just as Shen Jingchuan was nearly out of strength, a cave suddenly came into view.

The sky was already growing dark. He had no time to think, and dragged his heavy feet toward it, one step at a time.

Only when he drew close did he see that it was an earthen cave dwelling, abandoned for many years. From the look of it, someone must have lived there long ago.

Knee-high shrubs crowded the entrance, and a glance inside revealed tangled cobwebs everywhere. The whole place reeked of abandonment.

He freed one hand, drew his Tang saber, and swept the cobwebs aside. The dwelling was not deep, and he reached the back after only a few steps.

An adobe stove stood in the corner, the pot that had once sat atop it long gone. There was not a single piece of furniture in sight.

By the faint daylight filtering in from outside, he could see an earthen kang along one wall, half of it collapsed. The walls were pitch-black, covered in the marks of years of smoke and fire. It looked like a place where a poor family had once made their home.

Shen Jingchuan walked over to the kang and, with a thought, took the bedding and pillow out of his storage space and set them on it.

Then he carefully lowered Lin Qingyao from his back, helped her sit on the edge of the kang, and slowly moved her farther in, so that she lay on her stomach with her head turned to one side on the pillow.

Once she was settled, he plopped down on the edge of the kang and panted for breath, feeling as though every bone in his body had come apart.

He thought to himself that he seemed to have grown quite a bit stronger. Before, he could never have carried someone so far. This girl did not look fat, but she was certainly no lightweight.

Lin Qingyao lay on her side on the earthen kang, her gaze resting quietly on Shen Jingchuan's back. She paid no attention at all to the neatly laid bedding beneath her, her thoughts in turmoil.

A lone man and a lone woman were together in an abandoned cave dwelling. When he had treated her wound earlier, her entire back had been exposed, and this man had already seen it all.

Looking again at his broad, upright back, she recalled his sharply chiseled face. The moment her thoughts began to wander, she hastily forced them back under control, her cheeks burning hot.

In the blink of an eye, deep worry pressed down upon all that shame. Though she herself was safe for the moment, she had no idea how her father and brother were faring. At the thought of her family, her chest tightened in waves, and she was filled with anxiety.

Once Shen Jingchuan had rested enough to regain his strength, he reached into his backpack for a bottle of mineral water and drank deeply from it.

Lin Qingyao saw that he was drinking from the half-full bottle she had just used and inwardly reproached him for having no sense of propriety. What a lecher.

Shen Jingchuan drained the half bottle in one go and put the empty bottle back in his backpack. Only then did he turn around.

Finding the girl looking thoroughly uncomfortable, he frowned and asked:

"How is your injury? Can you still hold on?"

He glanced at the wound on her back again.

"Your back is bleeding again. Don't move around. I'll apply the medicine and bandage it again."

He reached out and peeled off the two old adhesive bandages, each of which had come loose on one side after losing its stickiness. The adhesive tugged at her skin, and Lin Qingyao clenched her teeth against the pain.

Only then did she feel her back exposed to the air. Gusts of cold wind swept over it, leaving her so ill at ease that she did not know what to do with herself.

Shen Jingchuan poured out some hemostatic powder and carefully applied it to the wound. He gently pressed the edges of the flesh together, then put on fresh adhesive bandages. When he was done, he pulled the bedding over her.

Lin Qingyao suddenly came to her senses. When they had first taken shelter in the cave dwelling, the earthen kang had been bare and dilapidated. She did not remember any bedding being there. Where had this clean set come from? It was truly strange, and she could not help being full of questions.

"The bandaging is done. It won't bleed anymore."

Shen Jingchuan softened his tone. "Are you hungry? I'll cook something."

Lin Qingyao nodded slightly.

Shen Jingchuan took a small smokeless wood-burning camp stove from his backpack. He went outside to gather some dry firewood, lit it with a lighter, and set a small pot on the stove. Then he took out two bottles of mineral water and poured all of it into the pot.

Lin Qingyao lay on her side on the kang, watching him without blinking. The backpack looked ordinary, yet he kept taking an endless stream of things out of it.

The bedding covering her was not small. Could it have come out of that backpack too?

But both his hands had been holding her thighs at the time. How had he laid out the bedding? Thinking of his hands on her thighs, she lightly bit her cherry lips.

Before long, he took out tomatoes, sliced them, and put them into the boiling water. Next, he cracked four eggs and dropped them whole into the pot. Finally, he added two packets of instant noodles, seasonings and all.

A steaming pot of tomato and egg braised beef noodles without any beef was soon ready. The smell alone made Lin Qingyao hungry.

Finally, he took two porcelain bowls and two pairs of wooden chopsticks from his backpack and divided the noodles between the bowls.

After dishing the noodles into the two white porcelain bowls, Shen Jingchuan did not bring them over immediately. He set them both on the old stove by the door, where the iron pot was missing, to cool.

Steam rose from the scalding broth, carrying the sweet-and-sour scent of tomatoes and the savory aroma of the seasoning. The small cave dwelling was soon filled with a tantalizing fragrance.

After letting the noodles cool for a while, he judged that the broth was no longer hot enough to burn the mouth. He picked up the bowl containing three eggs and carried it to the kang, naturally extending his free hand to help her sit up.

Lin Qingyao caught sight of his outstretched hand and turned her face away, refusing to take it. Biting her lower lip, she braced her uninjured arm against the mat on the kang and tried to sit up by herself.

But the slightest effort pulled at the wound on her back. Pain made her brows knit, and she froze halfway up.

Seeing this, Shen Jingchuan did not wait for her to keep struggling. He reached out, supported her uninjured left shoulder, and gently gave her a hand.

The instant his palm touched her shoulder through her clothes, Lin Qingyao's body went rigid, her shoulders and back stiffening straight. She lowered her lashes without a word, but in the end she did not raise a hand to push his away.

Using that little bit of support, she slowly sat upright. She immediately edged to one side, putting a little distance between them, and accepted the bowl of noodles with both hands.

She looked down and could not help staring.

Snow-white noodles lay in a thick, glossy red broth. The tomatoes had been stewed until soft and pulpy, and tender white shreds of egg floated fluffily on the surface. Three round poached eggs rested on top.

She had never heard of food prepared this way. Its fragrance held both the fresh scent of fruits and vegetables and a rich, mellow aroma of beef that went straight up her nose. Without her noticing, most of the shame and agitation that had filled her mind just moments before drifted away.

Shen Jingchuan took in her reaction and belatedly realized that this was ancient times, when the boundaries between men and women were strict. He really had been improper to help her so casually just now.

But though she was reserved, she did not seem truly angry. Instead, her attention had been snatched away by a bowl of noodles in the blink of an eye. The way she stared at it was truly amusing. Women really were all foodies.

He could not help the corners of his lips curling up, privately finding it funny.

He said no more to disturb her. Turning back to the stove, he picked up his own bowl of noodles and simply plopped down on its edge. He lifted some noodles with his chopsticks, blew on them, and lowered his head to eat.

Lin Qingyao held her bowl in a daze for a few seconds before picking up her wooden chopsticks and bringing a tiny mouthful of noodles to her lips.

The noodles were smooth but not chewy. The broth carried layers of salty, savory, sour, and fragrant flavors that spread across her tongue, a wonderful sensation unlike anything she had tasted in all her more than ten years of life.

Her eyes lit up slightly. She picked up a piece of softened tomato, its sweet-and-sour flesh melting in her mouth. Mixed with the rich broth, it was especially appetizing. Then she bit into a poached egg, and the soft yolk flowed out, deliciously savory.

At first, she maintained the poise of a well-bred young woman, eating delicately in small, slow mouthfuls.

But she had been fleeing for half a day without a bite of food or a drop of water, and her stomach had long been growling with hunger. The noodles were so tempting that, as she ate, her manners fell by the wayside.

Warmth slid down her throat and into her stomach, soothing the fear and exhaustion of the past few days. Even the burning pain in her back seemed to ease considerably.

She ate intently, her cheeks puffed out slightly. She did not even stop to wipe away the fine sweat on her temples, eating until she could see the bottom of the bowl.

Why isn't there any beef? Did he keep it all for himself? What a miser.

She drank the little less than half a bowl of broth that remained before setting down her chopsticks, still wanting more.

Only then did she suddenly come to her senses. Remembering how heartily she had eaten in front of a strange man, she did not know where to put her hands and wrung them together.

She hurriedly lowered her head, not daring to look at Shen Jingchuan nearby, much less check whether there was any beef in that miser's bowl.